Things That Scream In The Night

Early Thursday morning, all was well in our household until around two o'clock.  That's when Bunny, who was sleeping in the middle of the bed, woke Mr. Taleteller and I from a sound sleep with the Greyhound Scream of Death.  To say that I thought I'd have a heart attack is putting it mildly.  I flipped on the lamp and sat straight up in bed.

If you've never heard the Greyhound Scream of Death, consider yourself fortunate.  It's a Greyhound tactic that will stop just about anyone's heart in their chest.  It's a high-pitched scream that rivals the most chilling sound from any horror movie.  Someday, I hope to catch it on video, but I don't know if our readers will be able to take the shock.  Greyhounds don't emit this sound when they have been seriously injured.  For those readers who remember Hawk, he was once injured in an accident in our van that left the bone of his leg exposed, and he didn't even whimper.  Let him step on a fan cord, though, and you're in for a near-fatal heart attack.  Greyhounds are born drama queens and kings -- I guess it comes from being the companions of nobility for so long.  They let The Scream loose when they feel a trivial twinge of pain that might possibly produce more pain and need to let everyone within a twenty block radius know.  A certain blue fawn Greyhound was known to emit this sound during her obedience class days when her leash was inadvertently stepped on while she was supposed to be doing a down-stay.  Alas, I digress.

The craziest part was that she seemed to wake herself up with her own screaming.  My husband was talking to her and after a brief check of my pulse to be sure I hadn't had a heart attack, I climbed out from beneath my quilt to stroke her shoulder and talk quietly to her.  She must have screamed for a good two minutes, and I was scared that she was really injured, although there didn't appear to be any way that she could be.

Morgan stood on guard at the foot of the bed, her nose poking over as she tried to figure out who was attacking her pack mate. She was on the alert, but she couldn't find the source of the threat, so she paced the foot of the bed, leaning over to sniff Bunny's ear in a gesture that seemed to suggest that she was offering comfort or at least concern.

Of course, Blueberry and Lilac both slept through the whole incident.  Nothing comes between a Greyhound and her beauty sleep.  I guess they figured they could give Bunny the sniff over when they woke up in the morning with no bags under their eyes.

When we'd gone to sleep, hours before, Bunny had been curled up between our pillows, her head resting on mine as she curled up in a little ball.  Morgan had been on the foot of the bed, but she rarely stays on the bed all night.  After Morgan had jumped off the bed to keep vigil from the floor, Bunny had moved to the center of the bed and stretched out, no doubt asserting that she was still Queen of the King-Size Bed.  It appears that when she relocated, she laid down on the edge of Mr. Taleteller's quilt and then later pinched herself on the quilt binding.

After all that, I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, glad that we didn't have to wash all the bedding yet again this week since she didn't actually scare the pee out of me.  I admit that I might have felt Mr. Taleteller's side of the bed when he got up to visit the bathroom after I got back, just to be sure.  All I know is that I'm glad that the temperature is about to start dropping and quilt season is just around the corner.  We won't have to worry about the Princess and the Pea Effect when she's sleeping under the quilt as opposed to on top of it!

We're participating in the Pet Blog Hot again this weekend. If you'd like to join in, it's pretty simple. Add your link into the McLinky tool and copy and paste the code into your html editor. We're very thankful to Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confesssions of the Plume for hosting the blog hop every weekend!